


Take Me to the Stars

by hellostarlight



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Alternate Universe - Historical, Armitage Hux is a Jerk, F/M, Kylo Ren Needs a Hug, Please bare with me, Rey is Not a Palpatine, Rey is a Kenobi, happily ever after is promised, the author does not know french, the author is trying really hard, the titanic AU that no one asked for
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-01-08
Updated: 2020-01-08
Packaged: 2021-02-27 05:14:35
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,982
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22171627
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hellostarlight/pseuds/hellostarlight
Summary: She remembers him now, even after fourteen years. Even though he broke his promise to her, she would never let go of hers. Of him.OR the Titanic AU that absolutely no one asked forBut I promise it's gonna be good!!!!Explicit rating for later chapters ;)
Relationships: Armitage Hux/Rey, Rey/Ben Solo, Rey/Ben Solo | Kylo Ren, Rey/Kylo Ren
Comments: 6
Kudos: 14





	Take Me to the Stars

**Author's Note:**

> Hi guys, so I actually watched the Titanic movie the other night and immediately thought OH MY GOSH THERE HAS TO BE A REYLO TITANIC AU and when I failed to find one, I decided to write one myself because I'm a historical junkie and I just love this concept
> 
> It won't be a complete retelling of the movie, but it is very heavily inspired by it. In fact most of the plot will actually follow the movie but keep in mind there are definite changes (including a HEA because I'm not a butthead like JJ Abrams)
> 
> A huge thank you to Kay for proofreading this for me at 4:30 in the morning!! She didn’t even realize it was a Titanic AU until she finished it😂😂 I love her
> 
> Thank you guys for giving me a chance now GO READ IT :)

April 10, 1912

**Rey**

Rey Kenobi loathed being told what to do.

One would think she would be used to it considering that she has spent her nineteen years with various people demanding different things of her, but that doesn’t mean she’ll ever entertain the idea of accepting it.

As a child she was regularly scolded on many things, particularly her unladylike behavior and incorrigible manners. Her mother had always been picking and prodding at her to make sure that she was fully presentable at all times of the day, probably even before she could walk. Little Rey never understood what the big deal was that the bottom of her dress was covered in mud, but it was not acceptable in her mother’s eyes. Well technically nothing Rey did was adequate enough for her mother given she was shipped off to England for finishing school on her fifth birthday. She remembers that day well. A little too well considering it was the worst day of her life _._

_It had started off so splendidly. Little Rey woke up in a warm bundle of blankets after such sweet dreams, snuggled up to her stuffed bunny rabbit named Beebee. She was lifted from the middle of her bed into her father’s soft embrace and he carried her down the long flight stairs to the dining room where a very large marvelously smelling stack of birthday pancakes was waiting for her. Mama of course was appalled at the idea of Rey having breakfast in her nightgown, but Papa argued that you only turn five years old once. He had a strange, almost mournful look in his eyes, but Rey ignored it for the time being. She had other wonderful things to concern herself with, like the wall of presents lined up for her._

_There were so many! The whole surface area was covered in pretty blue packages wrapped in the most beautiful golden ribbons she had ever seen. Every five-year-old little girl’s dream. Little Rey tore into the packages with squeals of glee and her eyes widened at each wonderful gift she received._

_All were lovely of course, but her favorite of them all was the small music box with golden trim and sparkling red jewels. She gasped as she opened the lid gently and smiled her most brilliant grin when she realized that it played her most favorite lullaby written by her most favorite person. There was no card, but in an instant she knew who it was from. She leaped from her place at the table instantly, giggling._

_“Young lady, where precisely do you think you’re going?” her mother’s voice chased after her._

_“I have to go see him, mama, I have to say thank you! I love it so much!” she turned her head back and continuing running down the long hallway towards the front door._

_As a consequence for not paying full attention to where she was going, she ran headfirst into her nursemaid and was greeted with the most unpleasant of glares from her._

_“Oh! I’m terribly sorry Mrs. Gardner, I didn’t mean to,” Rey looked up at the woman and grinned, “but if you’ll excuse me, I really need to go see-”_

_“Rey, darling. Come here, sweetheart,” her father sighed out to her from where he was still seated at the table._

_She paused and looked down at her new gift before making the decision to walk towards him slowly. Now that he had her full attention, she could see that he did look extra tired this morning. His hair was rumpled and the shadows on his face showed that he had taken care to shave in at least a few days. He was also still in his nightclothes, a habit he usually only lets her get away with at breakfast time._

_“Yes, papa?” she climbed up on his knee and settled her little head on his chest, her new music box clutched to her heart._

_“There’s something that your mother and I need to tell you, my angel. Something that will be very hard to hear, but please know that we love you a tremendous amount. To the stars and back.” He wiped a tear from his left eye, and she looked up to him with fear in her little eyes._

_“What is it, papa? Don’t cry please,” she let go of the box, settling it in her lap before gently reaching her small hand up to her father’s cheek, wiping his tears away._

_He let out a sob at her gesture and turned to his wife just across from him. “Oh Ruth, you tell her. Please, I can’t bear this.”_

_“We’re sending you to school, child. In England.” her mother said to her directly, with hardly any emotion in her voice, unlike her papa._

_“Oh, really? How wonderful! I’ve always wanted to go ever since Ben showed me his maps!” Rey chittered joyfully. “When are we leaving? Can Beebee come? What about Ben? Oh, and grandpa Ben too! Both Bens can come! Oh, I can’t wait to see the ocean, I’ve always wanted to see the waves and the-” she was cut off._

_“No, Reyanna. We are not all going to England, child. You are going to be attending The Niima Boarding School for Girls in Jakku. I’ve already contacted the headmaster and he is to expect you in two weeks’ time. You leave tomorrow.”_

_At some point during her mother’s explanation, papa had lifted her off his knee and sat her in his red velvet plush chair. He was up behind her pacing with heavy footsteps, his hands running through his hair._

_“I don’t understand,” Rey replied to her mother with tears brimming her eyes. “What do you mean we’re not all going to go?”_

_“I mean that it is time you start to act like a little lady and gods know I can’t get you to understand how important it is for you to grow up. So, you’re going to a place that will snuff out your bratty attitude before it becomes too nasty of a habit.”_

_Rey blinked, and the tears that she tried so hard to keep at bay fell down over her cheeks without her permission. “But mother, no! I can’t leave my family. I can’t leave him, please!” she sobbed out._

_Her mother scoffed at her tears. “That boy has planted some rotten seeds in your brain, child, and believe me I am most glad that he will no longer be part of your life. He doesn’t belong in a society as high as ours, and I for one will be celebrating his running away from home.”_

_That’s when papa cut back in._

_“Celebrated? Are you out of your mad mind, woman?” Papa screamed at mother while still continuing to pace. “He was everything to his family, to us, the company! He could be good as gone forever and you’re commemorating it like it’s a holiday!”_

_Gone._

_Forever._

_She didn’t understand. Her mother had said he ran away but that couldn’t be true. He promised her that he would be with her forever and ever but now mama is saying he’s gone. Her mother’s words kept playing back in Rey’s head and she freely allows herself to wrack out a sob. Her parents argued so loudly that it hurt her ears. She brought her knees to her chest, clutched her music box and brought it to her lips, kissing it gently._

_“I’ll find you again, I promise. I’ll never let go,” she whispers to nobody but herself._

“Reyanna, doesn’t that sound lovely?”

Rey is jolted out of her memory by her mother’s harsh tone and cold eyes baring into her. Ruth Kenobi’s wrath is something she didn’t plan on dealing with so early into their trip, but she pays no mind at the moment. She shivers at the thought that just tore through her and is shocked by the intensity of it. She hadn’t thought of that day for a long time and now all of a sudden, she was reliving the worst day of her life as if it had happened yesterday.

For fourteen years she tried to block out the memory of leaving her entire life behind in New York to be shipped off unwillingly to England with no family to accompany her. It was too painful to remember, so she shoved it down whenever her chest started to tighten at thoughts of her father’s mystical bedtime stories or Grandpa Ben’s strong scent of peppermint and pipe tobacco. But what hurt the most to remember was _him._

She looks over to her grandfather now, relieved to see that he is sound asleep next to her mother, snoring softly.

“I apologize for my daughter’s daydreaming habits, Mr. Huxley. She was never one to keep her head out of the clouds.”

Rey drew her eyes up at that remark from her mother that she knew was directed at her fiancé verbally but was meant to cut her emotionally. She could feel her anger rising in her chest, and it swelled too dangerously to be considered ladylike. She didn’t care.

“Excuse me, mother, but I don’t exactly think that you have earned yourself the right to draw opinions on my character when you never thought to give me the slightest of attentions to me in the years since you abandoned me in that gods awful establishment that you deemed as a school.”

After she snapped, she immediately regretted it. Rey had promised herself she would be nothing more utterly grateful when she received the letter from her mother that she was to be engaged with Armitage Huxley. She knew nothing of him except for what her mother wrote to her, which was that he was to inherit the largest oil reserves in upstate New York. He was filthy rich. Possibly even wealthier than the company that her father and grandfather co-owned with Mr. Skywalker. Her mother’s perfect envisionment for an arranged marriage. Armitage, Ruth, and Grandfather Kenobi were to accompany Rey on her journey back to America. The letter stated they would arrive within a week.

She turned to her fiancé and placed her delicately gloved hand on his forearm. “I do not mind speaking for myself, Armitage, and I do wish that you can forgive me.”

Her fiancé straightened himself and took a moment to collect his thoughts. He pulled his arm away from Rey and looked into her eyes.

“My dear, I do wish that you would not raise your voice in such a manner, to your mother no less. A man of my status is expected to marry a polite and well-rounded young lady,” he paused, and leaned in closer to her, “and acting out in such ways does not reflect either qualities.”

She was stunned. Absolutely astonished at the way he had just spoken to her. Scolded her. Just like her mother and that horrid headmaster at Niima, Mr. Unkar Plutt. She knew of course, that he was right. He was expected to bring home a respectful, quiet and poised woman. A pretty accessory to hang on his arm and nothing more. And she was instantly afraid that she couldn’t live up to the expectations.

After all, Rey Kenobi did not like being told what to do.

“Perhaps we all just need some time to wind down. We have spent an awful long day traveling. I for one am looking forward to a nice hot cup of tea when we arrive to our rooms,” Ruth Kenobi’s voice shook with slight panic after her daughter’s faulty interaction with her new fiancé.

Rey allowed herself to laugh after that. “Mother, you do understand that traveling by ship is still considered traveling. We have much farther to go. To be specific, we have the entire Atlantic Ocean between us and our destination.”

“Yes, my darling, but we aren’t just traveling on _any_ ship might I remind you,” Armitage piped up next to her with a sly grin on his face, “remember that you have the privilege of traveling on _Titanic_! And remember also that there are going to be wealthy stockholders there, including Mr. John Jacob Abrams, and I want more than anything to make an impression on him.”

She scrunched up her nose at his enthusiasm and his arse-kissing attitude. “And yet you still have yet to tell me what exactly is so wonderful about this ocean liner than any of the others I’ve read about? The _Mauretania_ for example.”

The sudden string of car honks shook her grandfather from his deep sleep, and he let out a loud snort as he was jolted. Rey giggled at him, then turned to look out her window. She hadn’t realized that they had arrived at the ship docks. She shook herself for being so distracted that she hadn’t even known that they had been driving through the port town of Southampton this whole time. Her mother’s voice rang in her ears from many years ago.

_A lady must learn to pay attention to her surroundings, child. Learn this or you will be deemed as nothing more than a beautiful fool._

A sick feeling rose in her throat as Rey realized perhaps she would be amount to nothing more than that.

The car came to an abrupt stop and the driver came around to the side to open the door. He held his hand out for her.

“Miss Kenobi,” he approached her.

She placed her hand in his and simultaneously watched her footing as to step out of the automobile as poised as she could muster. She didn’t spend fourteen years in the worst place on earth learning to be a lady just to be scolded by her mother every five seconds for her lack of grace. 

She brought her head up and took in her surroundings. The morning breeze did little for her nervous jitters, and she could feel the perspiration building on her forehead. It was overwhelmingly crowded, but that was to apparently be expected on such an important day as this one, according to her fiancé. Armitage had been boasting non-stop since she met him how lucky she was to be boarding this ship.

Rey could feel him behind her as she spoke.

“I don’t see what all the fuss is about,” she paused, lifted the rim of her ridiculously sized hat, and turned to face him. “It doesn’t look any bigger than the _Mauretania_.”

He sighed at her attitude. “I’ve learned you to be blasé about most things, Reyanna, but you mustn’t be about _Titanic!_ It’s over a hundred feet longer than _Mauretania_.” He paused as if for dramatic effect. “And _far more_ luxurious!”

She turned away from him and scoffed to herself. He was an exhausting man, that was for sure.

“Your daughter is far too difficult to impress, Ruth.” Armitage didn’t even try to make it a secret at this point that he thought Rey was many things, but difficult to impress she knew she was _not._ She just knew there was far more to her life than which ship she would be traveling on back home because it didn’t matter how large or luxurious _Titanic_ was. To Rey it felt like she was being stowed away back to America on a slave ship, riding not in style but in chains.

Ruth let out a laugh not so far behind her. “So this is the ship they say is unsinkable,” she said probably to no one but herself as she strode past Rey.

 _Oh mother, don’t get him started again_ , Rey thought to herself.

And sure enough, the comment set off her fiancé on fire again as he shouted out something about even God not being powerful enough sink this ship.

 _We’ll certainly see about that, won’t we_?

“Oh, mother. Aren’t you going to wait for grandfather?” Rey called out ahead of her.

“Your grandfather can make his way around fine, dear. Now, come along.”

She didn’t budge. She knew her Grandpa Ben was a sick man, his memory slipping away almost as quick as his eighty-five-year-old body was. “Well, I’m going to accompany him then. You go on ahead.”

Ruth turned back to look at her daughter with something that Rey couldn’t quite place. It wasn’t disgust or disdain like she had expected, but she wasn’t brave enough to describe it as jealousy.

“My darling girl,” Rey heard her grandfather call out to her, “I don’t deserve your good heart, my child.” Her grandfather’s words caused her said heart to clench tightly in her chest.

 _Oh, how she missed him_.

“No Grandpa, it’s actually the opposite. I don’t deserve _you._ ” She winked at him and he let out a soft chuckle as he held out his arm for her.

“Well, shall we?”

She giggled. “We shall.”

* * *

Rey was grateful when she arrived at her rooms. She had been so eager to get some alone time ever since being trapped in that small space with her mother and fiancé making small talk with her all the way here. She wishes she could’ve snoozed the time away, like her grandfather. It was ironic, because whenever she was alone at night during her stay at boarding school, she longed to _not_ be alone. She laid awake in bed and just wished for someone to hold her and rock her to sleep the way her papa did. And yet here she was not even three days into her engagement, and she was dreading never being able to spend the night alone again.

How splendid is that.

She took in the room around her and she honestly felt no satisfaction from her observations. It was no nicer than her old room at home in New York, but it was definitely more deluxe than her accommodations for the past decade and a half with Plutt.

The room was bathed in a soft glow from the two light fixtures settled nicely on the red and gold trimmed walls. There was a vanity in the corner that was made of dark mahogany, and a table of matching wood sat in the middle of the room with two chairs on either side of it. Sure, she could admit that she would spend this week on a nice ship, but she wouldn’t exactly give it any award-winning titles like her fiancé would jump at the opportunity for.

Her luggage had already been delivered and was waiting for her when she walked into the room and shut the door behind her. She let out a loud sigh and rested her back against the doorframe. She gave her family the poor excuse that she didn’t feel well, and that she wished to take her evening meal in her rooms.

Armitage didn’t know her well enough to call her out on her lies, but even if he suspected anything, he never let on that he was uneasy of her words. He did, however, pull her in and place a chaste kiss on her forehead. It made her skin crawl. How would she be able to spend the rest of her life with this man if she couldn’t even bare the slightest touch of his bare lips on her _forehead_ of all places.

She took a few steps into the room and shrugged off her coat. She sat on the four-poster bed and began to unfasten her heels and pull her stockings down her legs. She unbuttoned her blouse next and threw off her neck scarf somewhere in the corner.

Her corset wouldn’t be a problem, she had taken it upon herself to learn the art of freeing herself from its treachery long ago. She reached around and hastily unhooked the ribbons from the hooks and finished the tedious task until she was completely undone. She threw it across the room as well and huffed.

If it were up to her, she would strip naked from these clothes that made her feel entirely unlike herself, but for fear of not having the privacy she wished for, she thought better of it and remained in her slip. She plopped herself down in the middle of all the pillows as ungracefully as she could just for dramatic effect and laid her arms out on either side of her head.

That’s when she remembered.

Her painful recollection of her fifth birthday earlier today caused her to recall that she had stowed her beloved music box away in the smallest compartment of her largest trunk. She knew that nobody, not even her new handmaid Rose, would care enough to snoop through the buttoned-up pockets hidden off to the side.

It’s the same compartment she had hidden it when her mother sent her off to England all those years ago. She had found it on accident when her small child hands were picking at the velvet in the corners of her trunk as her nursemaid packed her things away unmercifully. She knew instantly what precious cargo it would carry.

It was her greatest source of comfort at boarding school when she was feeling lonely.

Rey lifted herself off her bed and took the few steps across the room it took to get to her pile of luggage. She knelt down to the ground and plucked the locks on the side of the trunk and lifted the hatch. She was greeted with all her fancy new clothes that her mother had brought to her from New York when she arrived in England.

All the various expensive fabrics and jewels overwhelmed her, the same way they always did when she was a child. She ran her fingers over some pink silk and shut her eyes in disbelief and in pain that her mother seemed to value fine things such as a piece of linen more than she valued her own child. She let out a shaky breath and shoved all her new clothes to the side to find her favorite hidden compartment.

Once she found exactly what she was looking for, she hastily unfastened it and ducked her fingers into the pouch to pull out her most priceless item. She didn’t know how much it was actually worth, but to her it was the most precious thing on earth.

It meant home. It meant _Ben_. Her oldest friend and most dear memory that she never let go of, all these years later.

She let her eyes feast on the red rubies encrusted into the tops and sides of the small box. It was so beautiful. The most beautiful thing she owns and will ever own. No matter how much time passes, she never wishes to lose the vision of her fifteen-year-old best friend. Her confidante and number one playmate. If he ever didn’t enjoy their childhood games, he never let on. It hurt so much when she found out he left. He didn’t just run away from New York. He ran away _her._ She never even got to say goodbye.

She didn’t even realize she was crying until she felt her tears spill down her face. She sniffed quietly and opened the golden latch on the side.

Her ears were immediately filled with the sweetest melody she had ever heard. A melody that he had taught her on the piano when she was just four years old and had stars in her eyes only for him. As a self-proclaimed poet, he wrote her a lullaby to go along with the tune. She remembered his words well.

_On the wind, across the sea,_

_Hear this song and remember._

_Soon you’ll be home with me,_

_Once upon a December._

She shut the box gently and placed it on her heart as she allowed herself to cry over him for the first time in a while.

“I’ll never let go of you, Ben. Never.” she whispered under her breath as she curled in on herself and fell asleep on the floor.

**Author's Note:**

> Ok did you hate it? Should I stop before I become too invested? Oh wait it's too late. I'm definitely invested.
> 
> Please let me know what you thought regardless! Kudos and comments appreciated :)
> 
> also I'm on tumblr @hellostarlight


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